Comedian Jim Gaffigan, who performs Thursday night (May 21) at the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts, will be right at home in New Orleans. After all, he's a devotee of the sort of foods that doctors wish we would avoid, but none of us in the Crescent City does.

Jim Gaffigan

Hot Pockets are of seemingly endless fascination to Gaffigan -- he describes them as a Pop-Tart filled with nasty meat. Ketchup interests him too -- the dispenser at a fast food joint is a great place to meet women, he points out. How did we arrive at the pronunciation of bologna, he wants to know. He hates the Valentine's Day chocolate that tastes like it's filled with toothpaste. Then there's bacon. Bacon, bacon, bacon. Man's best friend is really the pig, he asserts.

But the thing that will endear him most to the Crescent City crowd, is his declaration that of all fried chicken, Popeyes is the best. Furthermore, based on his one visit to New Orleans seven years ago, Gaffigan, in a telephone conversation from his home in New York, said Lucky Dogs "are about 15 times better than a street dog in New York."

Beat that.

Gaffigan, who is an actor as well as comedian, is hot. He's a regular in the late-night talk show rotation, has Comedy Central specials under his belt, has appeared in scores of television shows and movies, and draws crowds of fans to his live shows. Surprisingly perhaps, he's climbed the professional comedy ladder without employing the sort of edgy, invective-laced humor common in live club acts and on cable.

"If you're talking about bacon, do you have to throw in an F-bomb?" he asked. "Seven or eight years ago, I had curse words in there, but I thought they were a crutch."

Gaffigan, who is married and has three children, said he also avoids "really irreverent" topics because it's hard to do something shocking, then "change gears and talk about escalators."

Gaffigan is fascinated by escalators. They provide him with the challenge of "making the mundane funny."

Perhaps it's his midwestern upbringing that tempers his wit with a sense of decorum. Gaffigan, 42, was born in Indiana, just outside of Chicago. His father was a banker. He was a finance major in college, who landed a job in advertising. He began doing stand up only on a dare, in part to overcome his fear of public speaking. Summing up his somewhat introverted personality, he said: "I don't like having 'Happy Birthday' sung to me."

The inner voice that governs Gaffigan occasionally becomes audible during his act, as he unexpectedly offers asides as if he were an impatient audience member: "How many bacon jokes is he going to do? Come on."

"We all have an inner critic," he said. "Mine's a little louder."

Gaffigan is the first of several comedians scheduled to perform at the 2,100-seat Mahalia Jackson Theater, which reopened in January after undergoing extensive renovations following Hurricane Katrina. The storm's floods also closed the Saenger and Orpheum theaters, where mid-sized touring acts such as Gaffigan's might have played.

"Now that the Mahalia's open, we put the word out and turned the switch on," said David Skinner, the theater's general manager. "New Orleans is now back in business."

Skinner said he's doing his best to "shoe-horn" as much as possible between the many dance recitals booked, as well as regular performances by the New Orleans Opera, the New Orleans Ballet Association and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. On Saturday, comedian Mo'Nique will take the Mahalia Jackson stage. On July 9, Bill Maher is on the schedule.

Though junk food is the focus of his act, Gaffigan confesses to being a bit of a foodie off stage. During his stay in New Orleans, he plans visits to Stella! restaurant, Restaurant August and Willie Mae's Scotch House -- where he presumably will compare the chicken to his beloved Popeyes.

Gaffigan said touring the country has taught him that every city has a certain must-try food.

"Oh, you're going to Omaha," he said. "You've got to get a steak. Dallas? Get Tex-Mex."

He said it's as if there were a meeting to divide up the country by food. Except for New Orleans.

"New Orleans is known for 20 dishes. ... It's a culinary vacation."

Jim Gaffigan is among the first of several nationally known comedians who have been booked into the Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Per´forming Arts, which reopened in January after its post-Katrina reno´vation.